(NewsNation) — FBI Director Kash Patel says a four-day delay before his agency got access to the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s abduction may have erased video evidence that could have helped identify a suspect.

Guthrie, 84, the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, was taken from her Tucson home in the early hours of Feb. 1. Local authorities didn’t call in the FBI until four days later.

Director Kash Patel told Fox News the FBI worked with Google to recover stored video from Guthrie’s Google Nest doorbell camera that was about to be deleted. The footage shows someone wearing a full face mask, gloves and a backpack walking up to the home. The suspect appears to have a flashlight in their mouth and a gun in a front holster. They’re seen placing a gloved hand over the camera lens, then using a nearby shrub to further conceal the device.

The FBI released the videos and photos on Feb. 10, nine days after Guthrie was reported missing.

Patel said there may have been more video footage that had already been erased in the days before the FBI got involved.

“There was a chance that it was located in their cache just before it was being deleted,” he said.

Morgan Wright, the CEO and founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, told Fox News that the video could have been key to the case.

“The earlier you get started, the better your chances,” he said. “Waiting four days may have been fatal to the recovery of some video that could have been more illuminating.”

No suspects have been named in Guthrie’s case.

NewsNation’s Damita Menezes, Steph Whiteside, Brian Entin and Anna Kutz contributed to this report.